The Joys of Parenting

Nope, not comedy. I'm not going to discuss how crazy my son is. He is. I'm not going to talk about how he breaks everything. He does.

Nope. Not going there. Not today.

I'm talking about the real payback of parenting. The smiles on their faces when you do something for them. The unsolicited hugs or "I love yous."
That's what I'm talking about.

As some of you might know, I took the family to hell, I mean Florida last week. Mother inlaw. It was, well, bad. We planned the trip a while back
and then had to rework it as I managed to score 3 tickets to the Hannah Montana concert this past Friday. For those of you not in the know, Hannah
Montana is a 15 year old Disney Channel product. She has her own show and she also sings. My 5 year old is in love with her. So anyway, my
friend's company was handling marketing for the event and he put in a request for three tickets and we got em. Good seats too. No, not good.
Insane. I didn't sit this close to the stage in a lage sold out concert without sneaking and bribing my way in until I was at least 25.My 5 year old
was 6 rows off the front, 3 seats from the center stage runway. As I said, insane.

So, we get there and she's sort of overwhelmed by the scene. The opening band comes on (boy band) and the girls are screaming and I'm starting to
understand what beatlemania would have been like if the fans were all 10 to 15 year old girls. Deafening in the Coliseum. Shrieking girls
everywhere. My daughter sat in her seat, somewhat stunned by it all.

As soon as they ended she perked up a bit. Then, the lights went out. The drummer started drumming, the guitar player strummed a few chords, my
daughter jumped up onto her seat and stood there for roughly the next 2 hours. Singing, dancing, waving her hands in the air like she was at some
kind of revival. The smile on her face stretched from ear to ear. She was, at times, maybe 15 feet from her idol. There were explosions, fireworks,
confetti and streamers shooting out and not once did she flinch or get freaked out (like many other younger fans there).

Several times during the show she leaned over and kissed me. Told me it was "the best concert" she'd ever been to (not sure what she was comparing
it to) and I was "the best daddy in the world."

This was Friday night. Saturday morning I awoke to my daughter, lying in my bed with her arms around me. She told me she was dreaming about the
concert and it was almost as good as being there. She kissed me and told me she loved me.

Sunday she spent the day with my wife and I took the boy to the Museum to see dinosaurs, dragons and other fun stuff. The girls went to the Christmas
Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. I've never seen the show but I've heard it is aptly named.

Anyway, they call us up after the show ends to see what we're up to and my wife is telling me how my daughter loved the show etc. My daughter gets
on the phone and she starts telling me all about the show, how amazing it was, how it snowed in the theater and the dancing and animals and the 3-D
movie and then she stops and in a whisper says "it wasn't like the concert daddy, that was so much better but don't tell mom ok?"

Monday morning, sitting in the office and sure enough, the phone rings. I pick it up and it's her. "Daddy, I was just telling LaLa (that's what
the kids call the sitter) about the concert. It was the best birthday ever - I love you." Then I heard what sounded like a car crashing thru a
storefront window, heard my wife screaming my son's name and the line went dead.

My Son lives in Melbourne and one night I was talking to him on the phone and as he is talking to me, I hear this awful scream, spine chilling. My
Son says OMG and the phone line goes dead. He is with his Nanna while Dad is at work, so I try ringing back, engaged signal. I ring mobiles, no
answer.

After ten minutes of not getting through, I dial 000 and report 'something'. I tell police what I heard, asked them to go to the house. Well, I
get off the phone with them and ring back my Son, still engaged.

He laughed and told me what had happened. Nanna screamed (OMG I forgot how chilling her screams were) because the dogs were fighting and one had hold
of the other's neck. To try and break them up, he threw the phone at them, thus breaking it and the engaged signal.

It could be worse. I have been putting my parents and their friends through a type of Hell for the past several months. Yesterday I threw a mirror and
broke the base on a Viewsonic 22".

Then I really started to screw up and came close to betraying a trust. I brought shame to my family and myself through my own efforts. I used to be
the little white haired girl on the chair cheering and dancing.

One day I will be caring for my parents the way they care for theirs, with respect, grace and dignity.

Ah, Lego's. My kids are all in their 20's now. Amazingly, I still find little bits and pieces of them in odd places. Many vacuum's died at my
house do to good 'ole Lego's.

I once bought my oldest son the caslte Lego set for Christmas. I stayed up until about 3 a.m. putting the thing together (thousands of peices.)
About 15 minutes after he found it under the tree it was ripped apart!

I think the knights ended up mixing it up with the outer space guys!

As a side not and unrelated, if you are ever missing your remote control to the television, check the refrigerator first. 9 times outa 10, that's
where I would find it, parked next to the kool-aid pitcher.

All's well that end's well.
A lesson learned.
A family's love, and a great friendship.
Two thumbs up, Mirry!
Learn something new everyday.
Remember that anger and sadness are wasted emotions.Be happy, always.
I trust you.
Love,
AD

Oh Gosh, you do have your hands full! Well, at least he didn't flush the remote down there.

I once came home from work to find the one and only toilet in the house not working and overflowing.

Luckily I had a neighbor who was a plumber and very nice to come over on a short notice.

After having to remove the toilet from the floor, it was discovered that somebody had flushed a tennis ball down! Nobody would admit putting it in
there, so the best I could figure is the dog dropped it in there while getting a drink, as the boys never put the seat down. I just wonder how they
missed it, since it was day glo orange! Probably didn't want to fish it out, I suppose!

As for your shoes, thank goodness he didn't put those in the toilet, too!

It's hard not to be really upset about this stuff now, but trust me, once they get older, you will have some good laughs about it.

I don't get upset about the things they do. For the most part, they're good kids. He's got a bit of a mischievious streak in him but he's a
handsome devil (looks just like me heh) so it's hard to get angry when he's so damned charming.

He also has a hell of a sense of humor (they both do) and he knows when to make a joke. Most of his best work is sight gags so it's only funny if
you're into it but I doubt there's a person out there that wouldn't fall over laughing at the sight of a very tall 2 year old in superman pj's
clomping out of his bedroom waaay after bedtime wearing tissue boxes on his feet.

Pretty wild. My daughter went to the Hannah Montana concert a few weeks ago, although her "thing" is the Jonas Brothers, who are her opening act.
She got some really good shots of the concert and turned them in for her photography class. In fact, they were so good the teacher made her bring in
the disc out of the camera to prove she took them.

Tell ya what, keep a camera ready at all times. You might be able to blackmail him at a later age!

I hear you on not being upset.

I have twin boys who were always getting into stuff that cracked me up. I once got into the shower, and while in there, they found out where the
oatmeal was in the kitchen. Not 10 minutes later I get out only to find oatmeal everywhere! How they managed to get it up into the light fixtures is
beyond me! Their older brother who was supposed to be watching them was oblivious to the whole shenanigans.

On several occaisions I had to go outside and bust out laughing so they wouldn't hear me, before I could administer a time out for punishment.

The Jonas Brothers opened here too. All their songs sound like covers. I know there's the blatant cover of Kids in America (Kids of the Future) but
the other songs all sound like songs from my childhood. Most of the so called "rock" music these kid bands put out seems to be lifted from the
70's and 80's, maybe some early 90's too.

Hell, they even had the crowd cheering "oh miley" instead of oh mickey

My son, also at the age of 2, came down with a terrible sinus infection. He ended up at the Dr.'s office. Low and behold, up one nostril was a
green bean! It had been about a week since I had served them to him.

Enjoy these days of two year olds; they grow up all too soon. My daughter is 20 now and moving to Montana next year. Still I love being a parent it
just gets better. You know you've done well when your 20 year old still wants to just hang out with you.

I never found legos in strange places; my little pony pieces yes. I got to work one night and found a pony in my coat pocket. I asked her why she
put it their; she told me it was to keep me company at work.

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